A study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that kids who are more empathetic pick up on sarcasm much earlier. That's because detecting sarcasm requires you to ignore the meaning of the words and instead focus on what the speaker is actually thinking. Researchers showed kids a video where one puppet falls down on a snowboard, and another says, "That was so good!" They asked the kids if the second puppet was being mean or nice. Then, the kids' caregivers were asked to assess their child's level of empathy. The more empathetic kids were twice as likely to understand the puppet's intent.  — By Nick Mangione [Source]